Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History by Romila Thapar Essay

It was during the year 1026 that Mahmud of Ghazni forayed the Somanatha temple for its wealth, leading(a) to the destruction of its many idols. In Somanatha The Many Voices of a History, Romila Thapar explores the distinct narratives that were create verbally at the time by placing them into the historical context of the period. Her goal, through this monograph, was non to reestablish how we perceive the history of the raid, provided to instead study the versatile perspectives and views represented in the motley sources still on the topic. Historical interpretations couch from the Turko-Persian narratives of the period to the Colonial writings long by and by the raid. Through the probe of the sources one would hope to point out the variations in the texts, and then break down why these deviations in the story came to be. Thapars findings would assist any historian in de preconditionining the nature of these sources and the way they are currently used. wholeness must reme mber that any and all sources could be of significant enormousness when looking at the attitudes of the individuals of the time. The Turko-Persian narratives contain a multitude of different versions of the raid on the Somanatha temple by Mahmud of Ghazni. Persian scholar Al-Biruni provides historians with the most existent version of the features surrounding the raid. He imagined that because the Somanatha temple was constructed of stone and placed in an area surrounded by sea on three sides it had to be guarding wealth. Mahmud was in fact able to conquer the Somanatha temple for its wealth, subsequently victorious pieces back to Ghazni. Turkish raids to India were originally focused on obtaining animal herds, but the reason for them now was to loot urban treasuries and capture prisoners of war... ...itish Colonials short term goals, but this course of action would leave long lasting effects on the people of these two cultures. All in all, Somanatha The Many Voices of a Hist ory hopes to study the diverse perspectives and views represented in the various sources collected on the topic. The hope is that this will allow historians to better understand the various perspectives on the period. In order to get the true picture of an event one will need to analyze all of the possible views of what real occurred. Historical interpretations range from the Turko-Persian narratives of the period to the Colonial writings long after the raid. Any event, such as the raid on the Somanatha temple, can evince to be more complicated then one would ever believe at first sight. Works CitedThapar, Romila. Somanatha The Many Voices of a History. London Verso, 2005. Print.